1 Nov
2009
1 Nov
'09
7:51 p.m.
At 12:34 AM +0000 11/2/09, Philip Pemberton wrote:
No kidding, I'm still trying to work up the nerve to work on a
Minolta A-2 Rangefinder that didn't cost me a dime.
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
It really does pay to get to know the lab techs --
there are things
that the machines can do (or be made to do) that aren't necessarily
on the service lists, or they are on the list but the frontline
staff don't know about them. The big one is having stuff printed
with "auto-correct" off -- the Fuji Frontiers have an automatic
colour correction system that completely FUBARs just about any image
that's been fed through Photoshop and had colour-correction applied
(though it can screw up some digital camera images too). IME most
lab techs know about this (it makes orange/red sunsets go *green*!)
and also know how to switch the stupid thing off...
With Costco you can download the colour profiles for the *SPECIFIC*
machine at the location you're using. You need to make sure they
know there is something special about your order. The same problem
exists with B&W C-41 film, they need to compensate for the fact
you're printing B&W "Colour" film, otherwise you get some weird tones.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33848088 at N03/3892314670/
Using the colour profiles and setting them in the image when I export
them from Adobe Lightroom results in some fantastic shots from my
Nikon D300, and a couple B&W C-41 scans I had printed at 8x10.
It also pays to find a lab that follows the maintenance
schedules to
an insane degree. The Jessops labs I've put prints / negs through
have always been well-maintained (again, the "get to know your lab
guy" point) but I've seen some pretty shocking things at other
high-street chains...
I've found that I want to take the film in when certain people are
working, and the lab isn't to busy. I lucked out today, but then I
just had a cheap roll of Fuji 800 speed film that wasn't going to be
perfect anyway. Need to do some experiments with a lightmeter and
that camera.
Question, what do you know about Noristu Koki QSS machines? Do you
happen to know if they can handle non-standard frame sizes?
Specifically 5 sprockets wide? I tried asking today, but the person
working was a clueless kid who couldn't grasp the concept. I'm
curious if I can run colour print film through my Stereo Realist 3D
camera, and have them scan the negatives. My first experiment will
probably be with a roll of T-Max 400 B&W that I can develop and scan
myself.
I was lucky. I
bought a Leica III (not an M3, a 1933 screw-mount
thing) in a local camera shop for a very good price because they
said it was totally jammed. After getting it home, I took off the
top cover around the shutter speed mechanism, removed the second
curtain latch, cleaned it up and put 1 drop of oil on it. Works
fine, although sometime I should strip down the slow-speed
escapement (it's sticking a bit).
Is there anything you won't strip to pieces and/or (at least attempt
to) repair? :)